


Could Have Been Worse

by glackedandmullered



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-20
Updated: 2014-05-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 21:06:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1662413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glackedandmullered/pseuds/glackedandmullered
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When things <i>do</i> go wrong on immersion shoots.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Could Have Been Worse

There was a definite trend developing throughout the new season of Immersion. 

An answer to the question, how much can we hurt them before it’s too much? A question not yet answered with days of throwing fruit at the boys with high velocity, beating them mercilessly with bats or, in Michael’s case, allowing him to fall into an unforgivingly hard hole not once but three times. 

Mario Kart. Of course, eventually they would have to do that. They ran the side scrolling experiment with Gus and Geoff all those years ago, why wouldn’t they revisit the idea of the hyperactive Italian plumbers? 

It was fun, racing Go Karts around in the heat of the midday sun, the wind rushing down the back of his neck between the helmet and his suit. Hardly equal, with Gavin merely driving down a straight line while Michael was taking the larger risk, spinning out on the tarmac; but Michael got the better deal in his opinion, there was nothing he would rather be doing.

They all came out to watch; Ryan, Ray, Geoff and Jack leaning against the refreshment table with Kdin chatting away about what could possibly go wrong this time. 

Gavin’s run went off without a hitch, obviously, after all he simply needed to hold his steering wheel straight so that he could take off in one line, what could have gone wrong with that. He jumped out of his kart, excited and filled with adrenaline that had nowhere to go since his stunt couldn’t even be classed as that. 

When it was his turn he flexed his fingers against the steering wheel, concentrated on the road ahead of him and flew through the first run, barely even noticing the bananas on the ground as he crashed through the end cone and came to a halt at the other end, satisfied with his level of douchebaggery. 

The second run ended in a way he never saw coming. He knew he was going into the turn too fast, cocky after his first near flawless lap, he knew but yet he wasn’t about to slam his foot on the breaks at the risk of giving those assholes a false spin out. Instead he went all for it, knowing well before the turn that he was going over. In the last split second he remembered that his boyfriends had joined them for the shoot, they were right there on the other side of the track about to watch him wipe out in a spectacular way.

His last thought before he hit the tarmac was _Holy shit, Geoff’s gonna be pissed_ , and then nothing. 

Blaine gave the thumbs up as he made the acknowledgement that the crash has been caught on his camera, keeping his recording running as the safety crew ran towards the kart laying on it’s side. The guys off to the side held themselves back, knowing that if Michael was fine, they didn’t want to ruin the recording by tearing across the frame; the footage would be amazing for the episode and no one would want to scrap it. They waited with baited breath for the crew to pull Michael out and right the kart, but as they watched the crew didn’t touch him, there was no movement from the kart and that certainly made the waiting men decide to fuck the recording and yell across the course. 

“What’s happening?” Jack cried loudly, grabbing the attention of Burnie who shrugged at him before calling cut and darting over to assess the situation. The second they heard the call the men on the sidelines jumped to action, sprinting across the course to where the safety crew were gathered around the toppled cart.

Burnie halted them as they got close, not allowing them to get any closer as the crew pawed over their young boyfriend. 

“He’s not conscious,” Burnie said slowly, holding a hand to Geoff’s chest when he tried to jump forward. “Let them help him Geoff.” The oldest gent huffed in exasperation but didn’t push when Burnie moved his hand. 

A flash of orange from behind them signalled the arrival of the onsite medics, immediately jumping to work assessing the injuries and concerns. Slowly and carefully they extracted Michael from beneath the Karts framework, one holding his neck steady while the other slid the large helmet off his head, tutting at the red splotch covering his temple where he had taken the main brunt of the fall. 

Burnie cleared the area to give them some room while the guys waited in tension filled silence while the medics worked to get Michael awake and responding. One had his cell phone out, prepared to call 911 at a moments notice, just in case anything was seriously wrong. 

“He’s waking up.” One of the medics announced suddenly, addressing them directly and encouraging Geoff to fall to his knees beside them. Sure enough Michael was blinking slowly and blearily up at them, eyes searching for anything familiar as he came out of his unconscious state, disoriented and confused.

“Michael?” Geoff said softly, reaching his hand out to touch Michaels cheek before the medic stopped him, advising him not to touch anything until they had completed their examination. Geoff glanced up at the guys, giving them a small, hopefully encouraging, smile before turning his attention back to Michael, the lad looking a lot more alert with every passing second. 

The medic repeated his name again, waiting for Michaels quiet acknowledgement before taking out his penlight and flicking it across the redheads line of vision, making a satisfied noise when the pupils reacted as normally as they could for a guy just waking up from cracking his head against tarmac at high velocity. 

“Do you remember what happened?”   
“Did I crash?” He questioned with a rough grumply groan, moaning when he noticed his eldest boyfriend kneeling beside him, feeling like he had been hit with a hundred trucks.

“Does your neck hurt at all?” The medic asked carefully, giving Michael plenty of time to consider it; he didn’t feel any pain, nothing beyond the pressure of the hands on the back of his neck holding his head in place. 

“No, no it’s fine.” He whispered in response, feeling the tension slip away from the air around him with the relief. 

In terms of injury...he couldnt feel much of anything really. His head was pounding and he had a bit of an ache in his muscles that he knew would only get worse over the next day or two but there was no pain. 

Well, yet. 

Both medics had their hands under his shoulders, slowly starting to drag him out from under the cart when he cried out, hissing in pain and gritting his teeth as they lowered him back down. He inhaled sharply at the pain that radiated from his right side, the side that had landed so heavily with the weight of the kart on top of him. It was agonising, sharp and stabbing, and he would have arched his back to escape the pain if it didn’t throw him right back to the ground as soon as he tried.

“What is it?” Geoff squeaked, fucking _squeaked_ , Michael hadn’t heard Geoffs voice take that high a pitch since he had fallen in that hole a few weeks ago.

“My shoulder, fuck fuck goddamnit that hurts.”

He hissed again when one strap of his overalls was unhooked and pushed aside, a hand tugging down the side of his shirt to assess the source of the pain. 

As soon as the fabric was out of the way it was all too obvious why Michael was in such agony. The skin was reddened, darkening to almost black in the centre where the skin was stretched taut over bone that certainly wasn't where it should be. The shoulder was weirdly shaped, the angle too sloping, bone dropped low and forming a lump that looked grotesque. 

"Dislocated." One of the medics said as he gently prodded the area around the lump, letting out a low whistle and a hiss of sympathy as Michael drew in a sharp breath through gritted teeth. 

“This needs setting and that’s going to need looking at to.” He gestured to Michaels forehead and the bruising that was starting to blossom from his temple. Michael rolled his eyes, wishing they would just pop his shoulder back in and fucking get it over with so he could just finish the shoot and go home. Hospitals meant ending shooting, having to set all this back up again the next day, or a few days in the future, delaying everything and setting them back in their schedule. He also wasn’t looking forward to the embarrassing ambulance ride that he knew was coming since the first medic was on his feet, a phone pressed to his ear and his arms gesturing animatedly.

For the first time since he woke up Michael glanced up at the rest of his boyfriends, they were all being extremely quiet considering, and that could only mean bad things for him. They waited for the ambulance in a sort of weird calm. Ray and Gavin were talking to Michael about the shoot, about how cool and yet terrifying it had looked, and how Blaine had been so proud to have caught it on camera. Michael asked if it would be included and Burnie replied saying he wouldn’t miss that shit out for anything, which to be honest Michael was grateful for. If he had to go through this shit, it might as well leave some good laughs for the audience. 

The Gents were less animated. Standing over them, conversing with the medics, Burnie and Gus in low voices, all the while keeping an eye on the entrance to the space for the incoming van. Michael caught Ryans eye and felt nothing but concern for what he was going to face later on. 

\---

Hospitals were boring as shit. 

Two hours waiting for triage before someone finally got to him, dragging him around and forcing the others to wait outside while he was seen to. Another half hour until the doctor came to set his shoulder, fucking painfully he might add, and after one final scan of his brain to make sure he still had one he was alright for release. 

Ray hugged him as they entered, the first to get to him, wrapping his arms around his lad being careful to avoid the sling that held his right arm in place against his chest. 

“You okay now?” He whispered and smiled at Michaels woozy nod, the painkillers the nurse had given him still very much in his system and only making him feel out of place in his own mind. 

“If that was second to last I cant wait to see what Burnie has in store for the finale!” Michael joked. He tried to pull on a jacket but, realising it wouldnt go over his sleeve without, no doubt painful, effort he decided against it, instead hooking it over his left arm and started heading towards the door to leave. 

“Oh no you’re not doing that anymore.” Geoff’s blunt tone stopped him in his tracks.

“What?”

“I said you’re not doing any more of those. You nearly got seriously injured today.” 

“I’m fine.” Michael stated, trying not to sway too much as the drugs fully settled into his blood. Jack shook his head. 

“It could have been worse.” 

“But it wasn’t.” Michael replied incredulously. 

“But it _could_ have been.” Geoff fought back, literally putting his foot down, stepping just that little bit closer to Michael.

“But it _wasn’t_.” Michael repeated slowly in disbelief. Of all the people, Michael would have thought Geoff would be the first to understand the thrill and strange joy that doing immersion brought, regardless of the risks. 

“Don’t fight me on this Michael. If Burnie wants you doing any more immersion shoots he’s going to have to go through us to do it.”

“What about Gavin?”

“Gavin isn’t being a moron. Like some people.” Michael bristled, gritting his teeth.

“So I’m being a moron for doing my job? For doing what Burnie asked me to?” Hissing sharply, he could feel the rage building in his stomach

“Oh so Burnie told you to drive like a fucking maniac and flip your kart?” Michael opened his mouth to reply but Geoff held up his hand, curling it into a fist to show just how close he was to losing his cool, Michael fel about the same. 

“Michael I’m done talking about this.” Michael was shocked. Geoff was treating him like a disobedient child, they all were, and he didn’t appreciate it at all. He scoffed, biting his lip in annoyance and to stop himself from saying something he was going to regret. 

Geoff didn’t seem sorry for his words, his attitude, and Michael had had enough. He started walking around them, shooting Ryan a sharp glare when he put a hand to Michaels chest to stop him in his tracks. 

“Where are you going?”

“I’ll fucking walk. Unless you can’t trust me to do that either.” He growled, frustrated. 

“I don’t think we can.” Ryan replied darkly, his arms folded as he used his body to block Michaels exit. 

Michael tucked his hands into his pockets, shaking his head slowly, clucking his tongue.

“Fine.” He pulled out his cellphone and scrolled through the contacts for a few seconds before he found the right person. The phone rang for a few seconds, Michael keeping eye contact with Ryan the whole time, with Gavin being uncharacteristically quiet behind and Geoff holding Jacks hand, obviously seething. Finally the line clicked.

“Hey Linds, yeah fine, listen I need a ride from the hospital…” She sounded concerned, asking why the others weren’t there and Michael just didn’t have the energy to explain,“Just, come get me okay?” She agreed cautiously and told him that she would be there soon. Michael hung up with a thankful reply and breathed out slowly as he glanced up at the still very silent men. 

Pushing past Ryan, wincing to himself as it jarred the arm that was currently wrapped in a sling, he opened the door, pausing briefly to turn back to face them. 

“I’ll see you at work on Monday.”


End file.
